Top 10: Interior Designers For Hire

Number 3

Geoffrey Bradfield

Clients: His list of clients is confidential, but he has worked on the Gertrude Vanderbilt-Whitney estate in Long Island and the late King Hussein’s mansion in Maryland.

The award-winning work of South African-born Geoffrey Bradfield can be found in residences, palaces, jets, yachts, and both commercial and government structures on no fewer than four continents. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s top designers, and appears frequently on CNN and HGTV. A huge presence in New York’s high society, Bradfield has also lectured at the Smithsonian and funds a named scholarship at the New York School of Interior Design.

Inspired by Africa, the Orient and Art Deco, and guided by an aim for “functional opulence,” his residential portfolio alone features interiors of jaw-dropping beauty. As a passionate, lifelong collector of contemporary art, he rarely creates an interior without at least one such piece. Geoffrey has a well-earned reputation for bravado: He put a massive 8 x 24 oil painting in the home of one client, and in a boy’s bedroom, he placed a suit of armor that serves as the only tie rack in the world with street credibility.

Number 2

Thierry W. Despont

Educated in fine arts at Paris’ École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and in urban design at Harvard, French-born Thierry Despont is first and foremost an artist whose aesthetic approach to design often begins on a canvas. He and his staff of 40 architects and decorators have tackled the interiors of villas, manors, log cabins, cottages, and synagogues for a wide international clientele.

Despont regards himself as a “dreamer of houses,” a fitting description that comes through in the dreamlike grandeur and incredible opulence of his work. His clout was evident during the construction of Gates’ massive mansion: Bothered by one part of the home’s layout, Despont had it demolished.

Number 1

Philippe Starck

French-born Philippe Starck is an artist who operates purely on a sense of emotion, and he ranks as the world’s most complete designer. His designs are famous worldwide for their variety, originality, stylistic stamp, and capacity to leave an impression — whether it’s good or bad. Educated in the New Design style at Ecole Nissim de Camondo in Paris, he first partnered with Pierre Cardin before going solo. In 1982, he rocketed to fame after designing the Elysee Palace in Paris for then President Francois Mitterrand.

Starck is a rebel renowned for eschewing everything from industry traditions to conventional materials in his designs, all while preserving functionality. In addition to cofounding the design-focused property development company Yoo, his vastly diversified resume includes an airport control tower, a waste recycling plant, restaurants, hotels, cafes, museums, a toothbrush, a presidential palace, home furnishings, a computer mouse, yachts, a lemon press, and a massive line of more than 50 consumer products for U.S. retailer Target entitled “Starck Reality.”

In the world of designable places and things, if Starck hasn’t designed one, it is only because he hasn’t designed one yet.

daring designers

Top designers earn top dollar because they make their clients appear a whole lot smarter and stylish than they really are — a worthwhile trait when it comes to the the spaces where they both live and entertain.